"Asked why he feels Clinton is so vital to getting the
peacekeeping effort off the ground, [East Timorese Bishop Carlos] Belo said with a smile:
'Because he's the boss of the world.'" (AP, Sept. 14, 1999, our
emphasis)

The following article of necessityassumes certain agreements, namely that:

The U.S. attacked Serbia for geopolitical not humanitarian reasons;

One U.S. goal is to eliminate the Serbs as a political force;

Contrary to media slant, US activity in the Balkans has in fact opposed
multiethnic unity, not encouraged it.

Of course, some readers will have different views. Please see the end of this
report for articles which go into these issues deeply. But irrelevent of where readers
stand on these questions, every decent person may want to read the following, which is by
way of a warning.

Meeting in Montenegro

Peter Galbraith is no ordinary U.S. citizen. He
was Ambassador to Croatia during the planning and execution of Operation Storm. In that
massive military assault, during which he was shown on Croatian TV riding a tank, 250,000
Serbs, mostly farming families, were driven from their ancestral lands by the Croatian
Army.

Galbraith was the US emissary who helped
effect a political deal between Bosnian Islamic Fundamentalists and Croatian Fascists that
made that vicious assault possible. Under the leadership of Galbraith and others, US
planes buzzed the fleeing farmers like cowboys herding cattle, strafing the stragglers,
killing 14,000 civilians. The entire Krajina section of Yugoslavia, ancestral home to over
250,000 Serbs, was emptied. It's villages are silent to this day. Property worth tens of
billions of dollars was grabbed by Croatia. President Clinton congratulated Ambassador
Galbraith, his trusted 'Peacekeeper.'

According to Serbian opposition sources, the same Mr. Galbraith was
in Montenegro recently. He met with Serbian politicians from the Alliance for Change and
urged them to start a Civil War in Serbia. He promised that the Milosevich government
would be destroyed quickly; he promised US help; and then, he promised, they would get
everything they want.

A continuing tragedy

Reports that the Serbian opposition was planning to incite civil war have been
circulating for weeks. Indeed rarely has a coup d'etat received so much public
attention and evaluation before the fact. I am convinced the civil war (or attempted civil
war) rumors have a basis, at least in the desire of the plotters; and they are openly
supported and encouraged by the US government, which has much military and economic
strength. So I will provide readers with the information I have.

First, a letter and some news reports from Italy. Second, an AP dispatch,
Sept. 12. And third, a note from Diana Johnstone in Paris.

A Report from Italy

A few weeks ago I received the following letter from some friends in Rome:

"Here are the articles you asked for. But first, a little introduction to
put them in context.

During the bombardment of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by NATO,
Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic refused to carry out emergency defense measures.
Montenegro, as you know, is part of the Yugoslav Federation, the other part being Serbia,
and the defense measures were constitutionally required. Moreover, they were ordered at
the Federal level. Not only did Djukanovic refuse to help with defense against NATO, he
even went "on tour" of Europe, currying favor with the very heads of states
which were bombing Serbia - and Montenegro as well!

An Italian journalist wrote that on May 13th some Djukanovic advisers received
a huge cash "gift" from the USA. We are searching for this article to send to
you.

You probably already know about the Montenegrin "proposal" to
transform the Yugoslav Federation into a loose "Union" with two currencies, two
armies, and so on. We put "proposal" in quotes because it is hardly a sincere
proposal. It is, like the Rambouillet agreement, a case of "making you an offer you
cannot accept." In other words, Montenegro proposes, Serbia rejects, Montenegro
secedes, Serbia goes to war to preserve the union, and so on. Civil war.

The Montenegrin government gave Federal and Serbian institutions 6 weeks to
reply. Afterwards: referendum and independence. The deadline is the third week in
September.

Some easy calculations show that the secessionist "line" has the
majority in the Montenegrin Parliament, though narrowly; there is some disagreement within
the ruling parties and moreover most Montenegrins are pro-Yugoslav. That is, they are against
Montenegrin secession, against civil war.

The rest of our information is taken from two sources - Il Piccolo, a
regional Italian newspaper and Il Manifesto. Il Manifesto is perhaps the main
left-wing newspaper in Italy. It may be surprising to your readers in The U.S., where the
left is far weaker than here, that since the inclusion of "former communists" in
the ruling circles, Il Manifesto has had quite strong ties with leading
institutions. This newspaper seemed to share the attitude of Foreign Minister Lamberto
Dini, who was considered a sort of "friend" of the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia. During the NATO bombing, the newspaper was clearly against the war.

There have been a lot of contradictions in the Italian left as well as the
government itself about the war. Now Il Manifesto writes that Lamberto Dini and the
Italian government are actively supporting Montenegrin Pres. Djukanovic's secessionist
policy, which of course is hardly pro-Yugoslav. Given their intimate relations with
governing circles, we can assume Il Manifesto is really well informed on this
account!

The August 27th issue of Il Manifesto (http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/)
had quite a lot of stuff regarding this secession-to-come:

They wrote that a delegation from the US State Department visited Montenegro and
met Djukanovic, Djindjic and others in Budva [Montenegro] a week ago [i.e., third week in
August], but this was kept secret for days. The official confirmation of this meeting came
from members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which is in the Montenegrin government,
for instance Ranko Krivokapic whose interview appeared on August 28th in Il Manifesto.
At this meeting the Americans said "they are not against" a Montenegrin
declaration of independence. "Not against." With just such casualness does the
world's Great Ruler accept this tribute from its eager Montenegrin pet.

Pres. Djukanovic's political adviser, Miodrag Vukovic, visited German Foreign
Minister Fischer in Berlin on August 26th. Fischer said Germany is "in
principle" against Montenegro's secession BUT "if Belgrade will not accept the
Montenegrin proposal for a new federal Constitution, well then..."

Also on August 27th, Italian press agencies distributed alarming reports
concerning Montenegro-based smuggling and Mafia activities. The Montenegrin government is
strongly linked to cigarette and stolen car smugglers, who virtually finance the small
Republic. In recent times there has been a huge deal with Philip Morris cigarettes; there
is also a kind of business trafficking in refugees from Kosovo (mostly Roma ('Gypsies')
now, but Albanians previously) seeking a better life in Italy.

The most important report on these issues comes from DIA, the Italian Agency
against Drogues, part of the Ministry of the Interior. It says the activities of the
Montenegrin and Albanian Mafias are linked with those of the Italian one, particularly
from Puglia in the extreme south-east peninsula of our country.

That's all for now.

Signed,
Coordinamento Romano per la Jugoslavia (CRJ)"

Italian newspapers: Plans for a civil war

T. Di Francesco writing in Il Manifesto, 08.08.99

Consider the question of Montenegro, which has been fiercely raised as a
provocation by the Montenegrin president, Milo Djukanovich, whose aim is to dissolve the
Yugoslav mini-federation. To replace it, he proposes a community between Montenegro (with
a population of 600,000) and Serbia (with 10 million), an independent currency, Ministries
of Foreign Affairs and Defense for Montenegro. He gives the Federal and Serbian
governments six weeks to decide on accepting such proposals. The deadline is approximately
Sept. 25. After which Podgorica [i.e., Montenegro] will act, by organizing a referendum, a
first step towards secession....

Italy, which has historically been on
Djukanovic's side, keeps apparently quiet, but meanwhile sends Secret Service officers to
Podgorica [in Montenegro], with the official aim of stopping the flow of Roma
("Gypsy") refugees from Kosovo, which have now changed status from refugees to
illegal immigrants. [They no longer have the right to asylum in Italy because the war,
which was never actually declared, is now nevertheless declared "finished" ...
Even though people die every day in Kosovo by hand of NATO's ally the KLA, alias UCK] But
these hundreds of Secret Service officers are probably indeed the evidence of Italian
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lamberto Dini's support for the destabilization of Yugoslavia
and for the new crisis that is being prepared by the devoted Montenegrin President, who
has strong connections to criminal organizations in the region.

Mikla Tadic, quoted by M. Forti in Il Manifesto,
08.08/99.

To this aim [Montenegrin Pres.] Djukanovic hired US economist Steve Hanke, the
man who organized the currency board that stabilized the Bulgarian currency. Hanke
outlined a plan to introduce, by fall, a new dinar in Montenegro, closely tied to the
German Mark (as is the new currency in Bosnia) and supported by a currency office.... Each
time Djukanovic, at that time Prime Minister of Montenegro, asked or more independence to
liberalize the economy, [Yugoslav Pres.] Milosevic answered by closing the border and
reducing the exchange of goods with Serbia. Djukanovich answered by opening the border
with Italy, for cigarette smuggling, and with Albania, for importing oil. He also
liberalized the import of second-hand cars, mainly cars stolen in Western Europe, which
the Montenegrins buy from the Croat-Bosniac Mafia in border towns with Bosnia. Taxes on
imported cars, cigarette smuggling (in collaboration with the Apulian Mafia, Sacra Corona
Unita) and oil have given Djukanovich the hard currency needed to fill up the treasury of
the republic and to prepare for independence from Belgrade.

S. Chiarusi in Il Manifesto, 08.11.99.

The rich Serbs of the Diaspora [those living in north-eastern Italy, who escaped
Socialist Yugoslavia at the time because of their strong anti-communism] do not like
Milosevic. They liked [the late Yugoslav Communist President] Tito even less. Neither do
they like [Vuk] Draskovich [a key opposition leader who opposes street demonstrations
which other opposition leaders have called; he says the other leaders are trying to foment
civil war] and [conservative-nationalist leader] Seselj. ... They bide their time, crying,
laughing, and giving financial support to Vojslav Kostunica, leader of the
Democratic Party of Serbia, which has a superb building in the center of Belgrade, though
the number of the party members equals the number of his relatives....

S. Maranzana in Il Piccolo [a regional Italian newspaper]
08.15.99.

Bronislav Vukotic is chain-smoking cigarettes in a pub in Trieste owned by a
Serbian girl. A former member of the Democratic Party of Zoran Djindic, he is now the
President of the Free Trade-Unions of Yugoslavia. "We are going head-on towards civil
war. The Albanians in Montenegro have been promised that they can split to join Albania.
And Albanians are now more than 40% of Montenegro. From there the first fire will start,
which will spread to Kosovo and then to the heart of Serbia. In Belgrade the Albanians are
more than 20.000."

Guido Ruotolo in Il Manifesto 08.21.99.

"If by Sept 21. Milosevic will not go" - the Alliance for Change
leaders said yesterday - "we will have a general strike, people will block the
streets and organize demonstrations in Belgrade and in all towns of the country." So
these oppositionists announce that the "final blow" against the regime ... has
been postponed a month". That is, 'til about the 20th of September.

From the Associated Press, 9/12

On September 12th, AP ran a story on Serbian opposition plans. Here are
some excerpts:

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- In a joint move against Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic, Serbia's opposition parties and the leadership of Montenegro plan to work more
closely with each other on reforming the country, a top opposition leader says .

Milosevic
is trying to suppress Serbia's opposition parties and is also at odds with Montenegro's
reformist, pro-Western leadership, which he has shut out from governing bodies on the
federal level.

The joint declaration is to be announced after a meeting of Serbian opposition
parties and Montenegro's government on Sept. 18 or 19 in the Montenegrin capital,
Podgorica .

First, by saying the Serbian government is "trying to suppress" the
opposition, the AP gives the impression Serbia is a police state. This is
inaccurate. The Serbian government has been strikingly gentle with Djindjic's 'Alliance
for Change' given that its leaders a) have met with agents of the US, which bombed
Yugoslavia for 78 days and b) have rejected the government's call for early elections,
instead threatening to force a government change through extreme street actions, i.e., by
force.

The Alliance for Change people have in fact held demonstrations virtually
unmolested, including one in the heart of Belgrade. In addition, recent visitors to
Yugoslavia report that most of the media, including newspapers, is (as always)
anti-government. This is hardly a police state.

So the AP report is superficial and misleading. Most AP readers
are uninformed about Serbian politics, so they would have no way of knowing from this
report that the attack is coming from the opposition, not from the
government. In this way, if and when civil strife develops, readers will be
pre-conditioned to view it as the Serbian government's fault. The strife will in itself
seem to confirm what is in fact AP misinformation.

The same is true of the coverage of the Montenegrin situation. During the
bombing of Yugoslavia, the Montenegrin government, constitutionally required to aid in
defense, refused to do so. Since then, Montenegrin leaders have openly conspired with the
US and Germany to split Montenegro from Yugoslavia. This, the AP mis-describes as
the Milosevich government being "also at odds with Montenegro's reformist,
pro-Western leadership, which he has shut out from governing bodies on the federal
level."

Despite the misinformation, the AP dispatch does include an important
piece of news: last Saturday, members of Djindjic's Alliance for Change met in Montenegro
with Montenegrin leaders.

Visit from an aspiring Mephistopheles

Also on Sept. 12, the following report arrived, from Diana Johnstone:

''Tonight I learned in a telephone conversation with a friend in Yugoslavia
that former U.S. Ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith has been in Montenegro, chiding
Serbian opposition politicians for their reluctance to plunge Yugoslavia into civil war.
(Galbraith was a key backer of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman's August 1995
"Operation Storm" that drove the Serbian population out of the Krajina region of
Croatia four years ago.) Galbraith assured the opposition leaders that such a civil war
would be short, and would 'solve all your problems'".

I checked with Diana Johnstone. Her source is reliable.

So Peter Galbraith, who specializes in making deals that make mass murder
possible, was in Montenegro trying to make a deal. There he met with the more extreme
(greedier?) elements of the Serbian opposition and, one would assume, some leading
Montenegrin politicians linked to the Mob. He made rosy predictions. He made promises. He
prodded his hesitant proxies to strike now, for democracy.

The same plotters met again in Montenegro last Saturday. Never have plotters
planned more thoroughly. Never have secret meetings been held with more publicity.

Absent the Opposition pols suffering a failure of nerve and/or complete
incompetence, are we about to witness another act in the U.S. government's production, The
Rape of Yugoslavia?

Or will their open sponsorship by the State Department (including Peter
Galbraith) so discredit the Alliance for Change and the Montenegro Mafia-pols that this
attempt at Tragedy will instead be played out as Farce?

* * *

Notes

or more on US government motives in Yugoslavia, check out the following four
articles: